AG-illCULTURAL MUSEUM SI 



o? the fali and winter, not only such vvetbers as are now of 

 pfopcr a^e, bat above all to examine the coats and mouths 

 oLhis grown breeders, and to set apart for the butcher all 

 that have broken mouths or indifferent coats. A sheep at 

 birth has his mouth full of lambs teeth, eight on the lower 

 jaw (every body knows that he has none at any age on the 

 upper jaw) at one year he drops two of these in front and 

 acquires in their place two sheep's teeth — the second year 

 he gets two more, one on each side of these last — ■. 

 the third year he has two additional in the same way. 

 and during the oarth year, there come out the two last 

 sheej)'s teeth, one on each outer side — thus at the com- 

 menc.'me it of the fifth year, the mouth is full, as it is cal- 

 led — having now eight sheep's teeth on the lower jaw; 

 during the sixth year, the mouth begins to be, what they 

 term, broken ; that is, the teeth are wearing a^-^'ay in front ; 

 and m the seventh year they have all become smaller, and 

 several are worn near to the gums; the animal is no 

 longer able to pick and manage his food, in pasture, at 

 the rack or trough with the same facihty ; his constitutioa 

 begins to fail ; ti)e younger and more vigorous competi- 

 tors cull the best grass from him in the held, and shovt- 

 him out of the way of good fare in the pen. It is then fol 

 \y to keep him longer under these disadvantages, and the 

 more is the folly, because as a sheep propagates as early 

 as a danghill fowl, and with the requisite care, such must 

 be the encrease of the flock, that to keep them down to a 

 given number, the only question as to the females will be, 

 whether to kill oif from the lambs or the ewes — and in 

 what proportionate quantity. The rule is, never to shear 

 more than six fleeces from a sheep, unless as to a particu- 

 lar animal which may be preserved on account of uncom- 

 mon qualities. 



The best season for shearing, I have found to be the 

 middle of May ; there is danger in taking off the coat too 

 early — If a cold rain should fall on sheep soon after they 

 are stripped, many will be lost ; so sensible are they, at 

 this^time, to the changes of th^ atmosphere; and shoulii a 



